


At the End of the Day

by emo_trash



Series: Stand Up and Walk [2]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Angst, Body Horror, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Named Reader, Nightmares, One Shot, Panic Attacks, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22970293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emo_trash/pseuds/emo_trash
Summary: He's always been by your side, and tonight is no different.
Relationships: Edcho, Edward Elric/Original Female Character(s), Edward Elric/Reader, Edward Elric/You
Series: Stand Up and Walk [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1650754
Comments: 5
Kudos: 41





	At the End of the Day

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is a deleted scene from my main series ~~my pride and joy~~ [Stand Up and Walk](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9141778/chapters/20770444)  
> If you haven't already read it, please don't mind my shameless self-advertisement, or my desperation as I very humbly beg you to go read it!  
> If you've come here from there, then you'll notice that the nightmare itself is the same. I've included it just to give more context to those who've never read SUaW, and because it flows better.  
> Enjoy!

_You are on your hands and knees in the basement of your childhood home. Alchemy begins to crackle through the chalk circle on the ground, blue and black lighting up the pitch black of the room. Hundreds of tiny black arms shoot from the ground on the edges of the circle, and in the darkness behind you, can hear a million indecipherable voices whispering. The sound fills your head, bouncing around in your skull; it sends a horrible shudder down your spine._

_Red sparks begin to crack through the circle, and there’s blood all over the floor, completely soaking your hands and staining the knees of your pants. Your thighs are soaked in blood, and it dribbles from the cuts on your legs like a leaky faucet. You look around wildly for Ed or Al, but you can’t find them._

_You’re all alone in the darkness, and the metallic tang of your own blood fills your nostrils, and you can taste it on the back of your tongue._

_Suddenly, a figure begins to rise from the center of the circle. It’s a suit of armor, cut in half at the waist. The helmet clatters to the ground, rolling to a stop in between your hands, still glued to the circle on the ground. You see a ruined seal painted in blood on the inside of the helmet, and suddenly Slicer’s voice rings out from the silence._

_“Why did you kill me?!” he screams, and you can hear his brother wailing from the center of the circle, the armored legs flailing through air at unnatural angles. “ **Why did you kill me?!** ”_

_Frantically, you shake your head, blood pouring down your face, your neck, streaming from the hole where your right eye should be. “I didn’t!” you scream, thrashing, fighting uselessly to stand. “It wasn’t me!”_

**_“WHY DID YOU KILL ME, ECHO?! WHY DID YOU KILL ME?!”_ **

_You screw your eye shut and scream into the darkness, and then for a moment, everything goes quiet._

_Chest quivering with the broken sobs that rip through your body, you open your eye to find yourself standing upright in complete darkness. Reaching out a hand, you press your palm into a wall about a foot in front of you. Feeling around blindly, you find yourself in a tiny room. Your hand grasps the doorknob and you jiggle it desperately, but it’s locked. You hear a woman screaming, men laughing, and glass breaking. Terror floods your chest, and you stagger backwards. The back of your knees hit something and your legs give out. You curl yourself into a ball in the box in the closet and clamp both hands tightly over your mouth._

_You feel a pair of arms wrap around you, pulling you back to your feet. You open your eye and see Ed standing in front of you. He smiles at you, his beautiful golden eyes reflecting the dim light of your bedroom. “Oh, Echo,” he sighs, shaking his head a little. “Did you really think that I wouldn’t find out? That you could keep your dirty little secret forever?”_

_You try to recoil, but his hands squeeze your arms tightly. “W-what are you talking about?” you stutter. His grip tightens even more, and you try to step back, wincing. “Ed, that hurts! Let go!”_

_“And why should I?” his voice is cold and mocking, and you’ve never heard him speak like that before—not to you, anyway. “What are you going to do if I don’t? Are you going to take that little blade and cut up your legs some more?” He lets out a biting laugh._

_Your heart sinks into your stomach, and you look down at yourself. Your legs are bare, covered in bleeding cuts and scabs and scars, and you struggle to free yourself from his arms. “Stop it!” You beg. “Ed, let me GO!”_

_His lip curls in disgust. “Filthy freak. It’s all your fault, you know. **You’re** the reason that Al lost his body. **You’re** the reason why I’m stuck with this stupid automail. Everything is all **your** fault! I **hate** you!”_

_He shoves you away and turns his back to you as you fall onto your butt. Sobbing, you reach out to him, fingers stretching to grab his hand, terrified to be left alone._

_Then, suddenly, the ground gives out beneath you and you’re plummeting through an endless void of pure, blinding white. You fall and fall and fall, and you scream and cry but you’re alone and there’s nothing there and no one to grab onto. You see the ground rushing up below you, and you know that you won’t survive the landing._

_You fall faster and faster, and a mocking laughter rings through your head. Just as you’re about to hit the ground—_

You jerk upright, hand flying up to your mouth. You bite down on the flesh of your palm to muffle the strangled scream that tears its way from your throat. Your cheek is wet, you’re covered in sweat, and you scramble your way out of the bed, landing hard on the wooden floor.

Curling into a ball, hugging your knees to your chest, you close your eye against the darkness and tremble.

Suddenly, there’s a sharp pounding sound from behind you, and you shriek again, scuttling backward on the floor until your back hits the wall.

The sound echoes through the darkness again, and you realize that it’s a knocking.

“Echo?” Ed’s voice rings out. “Echo, are you okay?”

You open your mouth to answer, but your throat is too tight for any sound to come out. He knocks again; “Echo, I’m coming in!”

You press your back against the wall and hug your knees into your chest, burying your face against them as the door swings open. You choke on your own chest-wracking cries, throat closing, and you can’t breathe.

You think Ed might be trying to say something to you, but you can’t really hear him over the roaring of the blood in your ears and you _can’t breathe_.

There’s a warm hand on your cheek, and it guides your face up, out of your knees, and you’re choking and gasping and there’s snot on your face and your tears dribble down your neck, as Ed holds your face in both hands.

“Echo! Echo, it’s me, it’s Ed; can you hear me?”

You can’t get any air into your lungs, but you nod wildly, pressing your hands desperately against your throat, your eye rolling back in your head.

“ _Can’t_ —!” you choke out, pressing your hands to your throat again. “ _Brea_ _...the_!” You gag, your empty stomach heaving in desperation. “ _H...h-elp!_

“Echo, I need you to listen to me,” he urges you, voice gentle but intense as he keeps his eyes locked onto yours. “You need to listen to me, okay? Start by closing your eyes, okay?”

 _Can't do that, sorry!_ The thought bounces around your skull without permission. _I’ve only got one!_ Regardless, you squeeze it shut, and his thumbs stroke gently over your cheekbones.

“Good!” he whispers. “Good, very good. You’re okay. I’ve got you.”

You keep your eye closed, head going fuzzy. Panicked, you arch your back, tilting your head back, desperate for oxygen.

You hear Ed curse under his breath and his hands leave your head. A new wave of terror surges through your veins as your hands reach out desperately— _please don’t leave me please don’t leave I don’t want to be alone_. Your fingertips collide with his chest and you cling to his shirt and he puts his hands on your shoulders and drags you forward along the floor, closer to him. He shifts, scooting around you so that he’s sitting behind you, and he presses your back against his chest.

“I need you to breathe with me, Echo, baby, _please_ ,” his voice is right in your ear and you can hear a note a desperation beginning to creep into his voice, and he wraps his arms around you, squeezes you firmly against him and you can feel his heart pounding against your back. “Breathe with me, I need you to _breathe_ , you can do it, I’ve got you, you’re okay, I promise. You just need to _breathe_ , in and out.”

He takes a long, slow, deep breath and you can feel his chest rise and fall behind you. Your heart slams painfully hard, impossibly fast against your ribcage and you feel him take another deep, slow breath.

You tip your head back to rest against his shoulder as you struggle to copy him, your own breath staggering and uneven, mouth opening and closing like a fish.

“Good!” he whispers into your ear. “In and out, just like that; you’re okay. You’re safe, I’ve got you, just keep breathing.”

Your hands reach up on their own as you force in another choked, halting breath, and your fingers desperately cling to his arms that are wrapped around you.

He whispers praise into your ear, and you wheeze out another breath.

Then, suddenly, your throat relaxes all at once, and you gag once more before desperately sucking air into your lungs. “I’m sorry,” you wail, trying your best to stay quiet because it’s the middle of the night and you don’t want to wake anyone else up. “I’m so sorry E-Ed, please, I’m sorry, I’m s-so so-orry!” you sob brokenly and he shushes you gently. He grabs you gingerly by the shoulders and helps you turn yourself around. His hands come up to cup your face tenderly. Shame and embarrassment bloom in your chest as he wipes your tears away with him thumb.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry...”

He tilts your head forward, pressing his forehead against your own and runs a hand through your hair. “It’s okay,” he whispers back. “You don’t have to be sorry. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

After a few minutes, you run out of tears, and mortification runs down your spine like an ice-cube. You pull back and bury your face in your hands. “I’m sorry,” you murmur, much more coherently this time. “I’m sorry, did I wake you up?”

“It’s okay, I woke up on my own.” His hand continues to run through your long hair, gently combing out the knots. “You scared me,” he confesses, his voice a hush, and you peek out at his face from between your fingers. His cheeks are bright red, visible even in the darkness, and his liquid-golden eyes are focused anywhere but on you. “I heard you scream and then I heard a thump, and...” he trails off, holding you tighter against him. “I was really, really scared.”

“I’m sorry,” you whisper, fatigue clawing its way through your body, weighing your eyelid down.

“Don’t be.”

Within a few moments, your eye is starting to flutter closed, and you rest your cheek against his chest, taking in his familiar scent—sunshine and iron and something else you can never quite identify—and you start to drift off.

You hear Ed let out a gentle sigh and he shifts, sliding one arm under your knees and the other behind your back, lifting you into his arms. He places you gently on your bed and pulls the covers over you.

Your eyelid flutters open as he starts to turn away, and you reach out and grab his shirt. He turns to face you and you blush, glancing up at him through your lashes.

“W-will you...” You stutter, blushing deeper and glancing away. “...stay with me; please?”

He hesitates, face turning red as he glances between you and the door, the flickering light of the candle in the hallway creeping under the crack.

Finally, just before you start to nod off again, he lets out a deep, whooshing breath and nods. You smile tiredly, lifting the cover and scooting backward, and the golden boy lies on his back beside you.

He’s tense, but you’re too exhausted at this point to care; you snuggle closer, pressing your body to his, and you rest your head against his chest as he hesitantly wraps his arm around you.

Glancing up at him through a heavy eyelid, you smile sleepily. “You’re blushin,” you slur with a tired, breathy laugh.

His face only darkens more at that, and he glances down at you. “And you’ve got a huge tan line on your face from that eyepatch,” he snarks back.

You let out an amused breath through your nose. “...Thank you for staying,” you breathe.

The two of you lie in silence for a few moments, and in the few moments just before you fall back asleep, you think you feel the boy plant a kiss on the tip of your nose.

**Author's Note:**

> It is scientifically impossible for any of you to ship it harder than I do, sorry!


End file.
